Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Tanzania - Arusha

This post has to be in English. For a very simple reason. I want my friends in Tanzania to be able to read it.

We went to Tanzania on a safari to see animals. And names like Serengeti, Ngorongoro, and Manyara had been in our minds for quite some time. We wanted to see these places with our own very eyes. Without the National Geographic or Nature camera crew filters.

We saw animals. Plenty of them. But we also had the opportunity to interact with local people. People who came across as unassuming, friendly, helpful, content.

We did not see fear in these people. We did not see suspicion in the way they interacted with foreigners. We experienced a strong feeling of trust. In other African countries we could sense fear, suspicion, mistrust. It was in the air. It was in the eyes of the people even though they were friendly to us. But not in Tanzania.

Maybe Tanzania was a silent beneficiary of an independence without war. A country with an existence without civil strife. And if that is the case, then much can be said about the benefits of a peaceful independence process.

For our guide we had Silayo. Silayo was friendly, courteous, knowledgeable and a very good driver of that big green 4x4. Silayo, by the way, also has the cell phones of all the animals. He calls them and tells them to be there. And when he does not have cell phone coverage he uses his two-way radio to find out from his friends, other drivers in the vicinity. The result is a couple of thousand pictures with animals.

We loved to see all the animals and I will show more pictures soon. But we do miss Silayo. Our friendly Tanzanian man on the ground. Because of him we left with a very warm feeling for Tanzania.